Writing With My Mouth Full

Bresaola Omelet Salad

On the flight back from Vancouver, I watched one of Jamie Oliver’s farm episodes. The guy is living the life: hanging out in the English countryside, gardening, taking care of his own chickens and cooking simple and healthy meals in his adorable kitchen. He made a few dishes during this one episode, but this bresaola omelet salad struck me as something refreshing, but at the same time substantial for a sunny weekend. The key is to cook the egg like a crepe and rolling it to slice it like strands of pasta. Thinly-sliced bresaola, or air-dried beef (think prosciutto, but from a cow), gave this dish the saltiness it needed while the fennel added some crunch and kick to the mixed greens.

I woke up famished on Sunday morning after a much-needed sleep. While drinking my iced coffee, I quickly assembled this before heading out to enjoy the rest of my long weekend. Note: Whole Foods doesn’t slice bresaola, or any other cured meats, paper-thin. I bet they can’t trust those young goons behind the counter with sharp objects. If you’re in New York City, Di Palo is the way to go.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
8 bresaola, sliced thinly like prosciutto
a handful of mixed greens
half a bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
a squirt of lemon juice
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with some salt and pepper. Heat a nonstick skillet with some oil. Pour half of the egg mixture and cook over medium-low heat. Make sure the bottom of the pan is covered with the egg by lifting and swaying the pan and letting the egg mixture spread thinly.
2. Once the egg is set, lift one edge of the egg crepe using a spatula and gently roll it to meet the other edge. Remove to a plate.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the rest of the egg mixture.
4. When cool enough to handle, slice the rolled up egg crepes to make strands. In a large salad bowl, toss the rest of the ingredients together. Top with strands of egg crepe and season with salt and pepper.

Salmon Tamarind Glaze with Corn Salad

Here’s one thing I rarely cook or eat: salmon. Now, salmon is a perfectly good fish but I think I’ve been traumatized with the way they prepare it at weddings. Salmon is like shrimp: a few minutes too much and it’s overcooked, dry and devoid of taste. But I haven’t given up on it. I know that just like any other fish, it will taste good if cooked properly. Besides, after devouring a lot of smoked salmon while I was in Vancouver, I knew I had to play with it some more in the kitchen.

It’s July 4th and corn should be on everyone’s grills this weekend, but they’re more expensive this year because of flooding in the Midwest and drought in the South. According to the Des Moines Register, the corn will come eventually, but maybe not for a few weeks. For now, we all have to eat corn from Georgia and Florida.

This recipe requires a tamarind concentrate you can buy from your Asian market. If you have access to fresh and ripe tamarinds, all you have to do is soak them in hot water to soften them. Put the pulp through a sieve to extract the juice, discarding skins, seeds and fibers.

Ingredients:
4 salmon fillets, patted dry with a paper towel
4 ears of fresh corn, skin and silk peeled off
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
half a red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup of tamarind concentrate
2 tbsps brown sugar
2 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps fish sauce
a splash of sherry vinegar
1 red chile, seeded, chopped
juice of half a lime
oil, salt, pepper

1. Make the tamarind glaze. In a small bowl, mix the tamarind concentrate (or extracted juice if using real tamarinds) with the brown sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, chile, and lime juice, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
2. Rub the flesh side of the salmon with salt and pepper the brush the glaze over them. Store in the fridge until ready to cook.
3. In the meantime, assemble the corn salad. Using a sharp knife, cut off the corn kernels from the cob and into a salad bowl. Toss with the cilantro, red bell pepper, red onion, lime juice and sherry vinegar. Feel free to adjust the liquids according to your taste.
4. Cook the fish. Heat a nonstick skillet with some oil over medium-high fire. When oil is smoking just a tad bit, gently place the salmon skin side down. Let them cook for 5 minutes without moving them to get a crispy skin. Using a heat-resistant spatula, turn the salmon over and cook the flesh side with tamarind glaze for an extra 3 minutes. Brush the skin side with leftover glaze. Carefully remove to a plate and serve with some of the corn salad.

Watermelon Rind Pickles

Watermelon rind pickles are apparently a Southern thing. But I first had them at Fatty Crab, a Zak Pelaccio restaurant here in New York City devoted to Southeast Asian cuisine. I’ve been wanting to recreate their dish served with crispy pork belly at home, and the opportunity finally came when Cameron and I started planning our first Supper with Strangers.

Supper with Strangers is an urban supper club devoted to bringing together New York City’s food-loving populace. We think it’s a chance to celebrate the season’s flavors, meet others with equally good taste, and have them enjoy a fantastic, home-cooked meal with great people. We both love to cook and entertain, so we figured, why not create our very own supper club and meet new people in the process?

While we planned the first menu in a span of almost three weeksâ€”that’s why the updates on this blog have been intermittentâ€”we wanted to feature cool and refreshing dishes using summer ingredients. One watermelon appetizer idea brought us to featuring watermelon as the main ingredient for all our dishes, a la Iron Chef. After several tastings, we came up with a winning menu and consulted with Pour Wines for wine and beer pairings.

Welcome cocktail: Watermelon-Shiso Mojito

Amuse-bouche: Kebab of Watermelon, Bresaola, and Caper Berry
Vegetarian alternate: sheep’s milk cheese instead of bresaola

Appetizer: Chilled Thai-Spiced Watermelon Soup with Crab
Vegetarian alternate: sans the crab
Paired with: Francois Pinon Vouvray Tendre Cuvee Tradition, 2006, Loire Valley

Main dish: Fried Pork Belly with Pickled Watermelon Rinds
Vegetarian alternate: Roasted Golden Beet with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pickled Watermelon Rinds
Paired with: Ommegang Hennepin Farmhouse Saison Ale, Cooperstown, NY

Salad: Watermelon and Green Papaya Salad with Tequila Vinaigrette
Paired with: Salneval AlbariÃ±o, 2007, Galicia, Spain

Dessert: Watermelon Cream Sorbet with Pirouettes
Served with coffee or mint tea

Ingredients:
watermelon rind, 4 quarts of 1-inch chunks (see directions for preparation)
2 cups white vinegar
4 cups white sugar
1 tbsp whole cloves
5 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
1 tbsp juniper berries
a pinch of mustard seeds
2 cups of water

1. Slice open the watermelon your usual way. Separate the red flesh from the rind. (Eat the red flesh later!) Peel the green skin off the rinds. Chop rinds in smaller chunks.
2. Make the brine. In a large pot, combine all the ingredients except rind and cook over medium fire until sugar dissolves. Remove pot from heat and let completely cool.
3. Transfer watermelon rind chunks in a pickling jar. Pour in brine until all of the rinds are submerged. I put a small and heavy tea cup to weigh the rinds down inside the pickling jar. Store in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks.

Rhubarb Panna Cotta with Strawberries

Remember the rhubarb sauce I made a couple of weeks ago? I’ve stir-fried it with fish and braised pork belly with it and I still have half a tub leftover. I searched through my recipe archives and thought, well, I can make panna cotta with it, yeah? It’s a simple sauce with a subtle flavor so it should work. It did and it made for a nice summer dessert completed with delicately sliced sweet strawberries.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tsps unflavored powdered gelatin
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup of rhubarb sauce
1/4 cup sugar
a pinch salt
strawberries for garnish, sliced

1. Place the milk in a heavy, small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over and let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin. Stir over medium heat just until the gelatin dissolves, but the milk does not boil, about 2 minutes.
2. Add the cream, rhubarb sauce, sugar, and salt. Stir over low heat, until the sugar dissolves, about 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
3. Pour the cream mixture into 2 martini glasses, dividing equally. Cover with Saran wrap and refrigerate. Chill until set, at least 6 hours and up to 2 days.
4. When ready to serve, top with strawberries.

Fish Braised in Sundried Tomatoes

Anna sent me a pack of sundried tomatoes from her recent trip to Argentina so I went searching for recipes using them as the main ingredient. There were a lot of proven recipes for spreads and pastes, so I stuck with one of them and just used it on fish I bought for my weekly omakase bento at work. The heavy cream was rather random but I needed to dilute the tomatoes’ saltiness without losing the consistency of the braising sauce. It was also the only thing I had handy in the fridge. Toss with some basil chiffonade and serve with an unsalted orzo and you should be all set.

Any white fish will do here. Cod will be excellent, but a lower-priced Swai is good, too. And you know what? I spread the sundried tomato paste on a portobello mushroom and grilled that for the vegetarian in the group, and he liked it, too.

Ingredients:
4 fish fillets
a splash of heavy cream
a handful of sundried tomatoes, soaked in hot water for at least 15 minutes, patted dry with a paper towel
a handful of basil leaves
3 cloves of garlic
a splash of sherry vinegar
oil, salt, pepper

1. Make sundried tomato paste. Using a food processor, pulse tomatoes, garlic and basil, adding some oil until you reach the consistency of paste. Season with pepper. Transfer to a container.
2. Lightly salt the fish. (The tomatoes will add more saltiness.) Sprinkle some pepper, too. Using a spatula, spread some of the paste onto the fish.
3. Heat some oil in a large skillet. Add the tomato-covered fish and cook for about 3 minutes per side, uncovered. Lower the heat and add the heavy cream. Gently scrape off the bits and pieces under the fish, cover and steam for an extra 5 minutes. Uncover and transfer the fish to a plate.